Mom's Fragrant Aloo Chana Masala (Oil and Fat-Free)
Ingredients
- 6 - 8 medium red or gold potatoes, steamed and peeled
- 2 cups chickpeas (cooked not dried)
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp red chili powder (less if you cannot handle the spice)
- 1 green chili, sliced
- 2 tsp fennel seeds
- 2 tsp whole coriander coarsely ground
- ½ cup water, to sauté
- 1 pinch black seed (or black caraway, kalonji)
- 2 Tbsp date sauce
- ½ tsp Sea salt or to taste (optional)
- 6-8 curry leaves
- 2 limes, juiced
- ½ cup fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Steam your potatoes on the stove in a steaming pot, or in an electric steamer (I recommend the Cuisinart). This takes about 30 minutes.
- Once done, peel and cube them ready to use in the masala.
- You can start the masala while the potatoes are steaming. If you are going to cook your chickpeas from scratch, I recommend giving yourself about 45 minutes headstart on your recipe. You can start steaming the potatoes and prepping the chickpeas together.
- If you are using canned chickpeas, strain the water off and lightly mash. If you are cooking the chickpeas from scratch, use about ⅔ cup of dried chickpeas to yield 2 cups of cooked chickpeas. Again, once ready, lightly mash them.
- While the potatoes are steaming, put all the masala - fennel seeds, red chilli, coarsely ground coriander, and green chili into a pan on medium heat. Do not add the black seed (black caraway) into the pan at this time. Use 1 tbsp of water for sautéing.
- Cook until the masala becomes aromatic, about 2 - 3 minutes. Add more water as needed for cooking the masala.
- Once the masala is aromatic then add the curry leaves, chickpeas and potatoes.
- Mix the masala thoroughly with the potatoes and chickpeas. Drizzle the date syrup and mix again.
- Add kalonji (black seed) at the end and finish the dish off with the lime juice. We are asking for a lot of lime juice here and you don’t want to skimp on this! It really seals in the right flavor for this dish.
- Garnish with fresh cilantro and voila, your Fragrant Aloo Chana Masala is ready.
- If you already have the potatoes and chickpeas ready ahead of time, the cooking time for this dish is about 5 - 7 minutes. Serve warm and Enjoy!
Fragrant Aloo Chana Masala is one of the easiest, most delicious, and most satisfying meals you can whip together even if you are struggling with chronic illness. Moreover, with so many powerful healing ingredients, this is a delicious and comforting healing recipe!
Potatoes
Yes, the potato, despite the bad rap it has gotten throughout the years, is actually an incredibly healing food!
The truth is, what people add to the potato has made them so bad for us. Most people add toxic oils, cheese, butter, milk, and cream to potatoes. This combination of fat plus glucose creates insulin resistance and feeds every type of cancer.
In fact, the entire potato, skin included, is beneficial for our health.
Potatoes are particularly high in Lysine in their bioactive form. Lysine fights cancers, liver disease, inflammation, and viruses such as Epstein-Barr (EBV) and shingles.
Furthermore, potatoes will help ward off liver disease, strengthen your kidneys, soothe your nerves and digestive tract, and reverse Crohn’s, colitis, IBS, and peptic ulcers – all of which result from viruses that the Lysine helps destroy.
In addition to the Lysine, potatoes are also rich in potassium, vitamin B6, and other amino acids. Not only are potatoes antiviral, but they are also antifungal and antibacterial and contain nutritional cofactors and enzymes as well as bioactive compounds which help prevent you from getting too stressed out. As brain food, they also help to keep you grounded and centered.
Chili Pepper
Chili Peppers are very healing to the body. They are generally high in vitamin C and they help a lot with colds, cases of flu, and bronchitis. They also boost circulation (ever seen someone get red in their face after eating a chili pepper?) and help with the heart as well. Hot peppers can help to create hydrochloric acid in the stomach and can stimulate peristaltic motion of the gut – think, have you ever needed to ‘go’ after eating chili peppers?
Turmeric
Turmeric is a powerful anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiseptic, and anti-depressant. The primary component of turmeric is curcumin. Curcumin has incredible anti-cancer properties and has been shown to help prevent and inhibit prostate, skin, colon, mouth, esophageal, lung, stomach, pancreatic, liver, and breast cancer.
Turmeric is a powerful healing tool. It has been known to help purify the blood, soothe respiratory conditions, improve liver function, support the circulatory system, regulate menstrual cycles, prevent cognitive diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s, and heal gastrointestinal disorders.
As a powerful anti-inflammatory, turmeric has been shown to help significantly reduce the inflammation associated with arthritis and other auto-immune diseases such as lupus, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Additionally, turmeric is wonderful for digestion and helps the body to digest fats/proteins while also helping to regulate blood sugar.
One of the most well-known properties of turmeric is its anti-aging effects. Due to the significant amount of antioxidants, turmeric has a fountain-of-youth quality – very beneficial to the skin.
Dates
Dates are great at improving your energy and brain function. They are packed with nutrients such as vitamin A & B-complex, as well as minerals such as iron, calcium, manganese, copper, and potassium. Dates have been used by athletes for thousands of years to help build bone and muscle strength while also improving physical endurance.
Because dates contain anti-inflammatory and anti-infective properties, they are a wonderful food choice for anybody suffering from chronic infections and auto-immune disorders. Additionally, dates help protect against strokes and coronary heart disease as they help to control heart rate and blood pressure. Dates have also been found to help prevent certain cancers such as colon, prostate, lung, endometrial, and pancreatic.
Try this fragrant aloo chana masala paired with any number of my chutneys and sauces from my Chutneys And Sauces Recipe eBook. Personally, I absolutely love this paired with my mango chutney!
This eBook is filled with my classic family recipes for chutneys and sauces. With a wide variety of mouth-watering recipes, writing this took me right back to my childhood. I was blessed to grow up in a family that shared the love of traditional cooking and passed these techniques down from generation to generation.
All proceeds from this book will be going to Underdog Warriors, a not-for-profit organization co-founded by two incredible individuals who recovered from a chronic illness using the power of Medical Medium® information and who decided they wanted to give back. Underdog Warriors support those suffering who have been left without the financial means or professional support they need to heal.
Underdog Warriors provides scholarships to help subsidize the cost of Medical Medium® recommended tools and supplements, as well as health coaching sessions for those in need.
Let me know in the comments below if you make this and how it turns out; your feedback means a lot to me.
To your health & happiness,
Muneeza
